Tag Archives: football

Why Broadcast TV is So Thankful for Thanksgiving

macy-parade

No matter what your Thanksgiving plans are tomorrow, chances are you’ll be spending at least part of the day in front of a TV. As I wrote at Adweek,

Macy’s iconic parade and three Turkey Day football games ranked among the 30 most-watched network programs last fall. The whole holiday has become a testament to the drawing power of live TV—and captive audiences—as friends and families gather for the meal and end up riveted to their TV sets all day long.

I also spoke with Brad Lachman, who is executive producing his 21st Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, about the program’s enduring appeal, and why it had its highest ratings ever last year.

Why Broadcast TV is So Thankful for Thanksgiving

The Five Ways American TV Has Changed Forever

five ways american TV has changed

That’s a wrap on TCA summer press tour, which means that it’s time for one last story before I leave L.A.: a roundup of noteworthy developments from press tour, which reveal several new truths about the TV industry. Chief among them: Nothing is a ratings guarantee — except football.

Somewhere in the vicinity of 100 shows were paneled at press tour, but as CBS president and CEO Les Moonves pointed out, “When you come back next year, not all of them are still going to be on the air. Even ours. However, this is a sure thing.” He was referring to Thursday Night Football, which is moving to CBS for the first eight weeks of the NFL season (after which it will return to NFL Network, where it has aired since 2006).

As NFL commissioner Roger Goodell noted, “Sunday Night Football is now the number one franchise in all of television. Not just in sports, but in all of television.” Sunday Night Football was indeed the top-rated show on TV last season, averaging 21.5 million viewers. CBS and Fox’s Sunday afternoon broadcasts draw a similarly-sized audience, while ESPN’s Monday Night Football averaged 13.7 million viewers. And the Super Bowl is always the most-watched program each year, with a record 112.2 million viewers tuning in last February. As such, Goodell expects that Thursday Night Football will be “the biggest thing” to happen on TV this season.

There’s lots more about 3D TV, 4K TV, Hulu, Amazon, binge-watching, late-night and series based on comic books. Take a look; now that press tour is over, I’m going to sleep for several days!

The five ways American TV has changed forever 

Americans’ New Thanksgiving Tradition: Watching TV All Day Long

qz-americans-new-thanksgiving

Sure, you’re spent an hour or two eating Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, but you’ll spend a lot more time honoring another important Thanksgiving tradition: watching TV all day long. As I wrote at Quartz,

More than any other major American holiday, Thanksgiving has become a TV-centric day, where people seem to spend far more time in front of the television than they do at the dinner table. And the broadcast networks are taking advantage of that rapt audience through marquee programs that last year attracted more than 114 million viewers.

From Macy’s Thankgiving Day Parade to three football games, let’s face it: you’ll be spending most of Thanksgiving in front of the TV.

Americans’ new Thanksgiving tradition: watching TV all day long